"Green" policies are destroying this country

Correct me if I'm wrong, but being gay doesn't prevent me from using examples to make a point, does it? As for the rest it's way off topic.

Greenest country? lol. It's one of the most denatured countries in the world, only Malta has less trees in Europe, and our coverage of 11% is nearly all tree farms for profit, only 2 or 3% actual indigenous trees left. Our waterways are being completely destroyed by agriculture and we even pump raw sewage into rivers. Nothing resembling wilderness in Ireland left. We are heavy polluters per capita too.

I will never understand how the Greens get the blame for everything FG and FF have done over the years, people are really really stupid on this site.

There is a realm of concern that’s rather large and out of our control, but there is also a smaller sphere and that’s our realm of influence and that’s what we should try to focus our energy on.

by proven technology, I’m sure you mean technology proven to warm the planet enough to drive whole eco systems to extinction and kill people directly with their noxious fumes

No it was you who ignored the point I was making for a topic that in essence that noting to do with the topic at hand, just like Afghanistan which I also mentioned is not the topic at hand.

We are part of the EU, the EU is a massive polluter. The EU is an enormous market for China too, we outsource the dirty factory work to China, so we are as much to blame as they are.

How will we make up for it I don't know, but maybe we all need to be using less and less energy, we might even have to be a little **GASP** inconvenienced, something current generations don't seem to be able to deal with. Do you think we should just carry on burning fossil fuels worldwide and heating up the planet until it's no longer habitable?

why are the Greens dominating everything though if they're a small partner in Government and will be gone after the next election? Why are people allowing the Greens to dictate everything?

If poorer countries feel they can gain an economic advantage over the traditional powers by ignoring the green agenda, you can bet your bottom that they will be taking it. And you can also bet that big business will move production to those countries.

Countries in Europe even, Ukraine, Moldova, Albania etc, non EU countries but on the doorstep. Where people are struggling with employment and make very poor wages. Do they think the leaders of these places will be giving a poo about the polar ice caps and droughts in Africa? When they can gain an economic advantage over us and create employment.

The Ranelagh Mafia are so removed from ordinary people, it is beyond belief. People are not on the dinner table talking about "The climate emergency" and LBGTQXYZ rights. They are talking about bills, employment, food, the cost of the living, crime, future prospects. They most certainly are not talking about "The Climate Emergency" at the dinner table in effing Ukraine.

People in Ukraine are not going to the local TD to discuss The Great Barrier Reef and snow leopards. They are going to their local politician to say "why am I working 60 hours a week and cannot pay my bills?", "what are you going to do if Russia invade us?", "I've had to hitch-hike to work this week, why are there no buses?".

Leaving aside your rather colourful analogy the reality is it's just not going to happen.

One important thing to note about FF and FG is that they have been at this game a long time.

Whether the outcome will be good for the future of the planet is another days work.

In fairness the greens and their supporters do seem like brainwashed religious nuts.

Honestly, isn't the only solution to a clean, always on, reliable power source nuclear? I'm aware there has been a very successful scare campaign by the wind/solar/fossil fuel industry against nuclear power, but what else guarantees 24/7 power within the current bounds of reality? Nuclear is a scary word, but is it anymore scary than going out on a daily basis to share the same road with hundreds/thousands of amateur drivers at 100KM per hour?

Both wind and solar aren't exactly clean power either, given the amount of polluting resources that goes into producing them.

As for the Greens their last term in government - when they conspired to deny the people of Donegal a right to vote for their TD - ought to have disbarred them from any serious consideration for representation in future governments. Whatever policies they come up with are inevitably to the detriment of the Irish people. A shambles of a party claiming to be purer than the driven snow.

Ireland is playing catch up on a problem it tried to ignore for 20 years (in a cute whore kind of a way), its created its crisis by trying to ignore the crisis of climate change. The chickens have come home to roost. The power stations it is closing are because they are at end of life and a decision was made not to replace them with more fossil fuel plants. A reliance on one alternative always was going to be risky, but in the context of a High Voltage Direct Current network which is pan European its a strategic long term choice which will eventually pay dividends. As for Nuclear we get the benefits of French Nuclear through those HVDC lines without running the inescapable risks of having our own Nuclear power plants. There is also the not inconsiderable fact that if we decided to go nuclear not a drop of power would be on the grid until about 2040, in the mean time for the same money we could have massively more capacity of Solar and Wind which would come on tap incrementally. Despite what people may say - solar is viable and cost effective in Ireland even with our cloudy conditions. There is also the often ignored fact that if we were to go Nuclear it would require building multiple Nuclear power plants in parallel (each at massive costs) and dependence on one massive nuclear plant is totally unsustainable as they have downtimes running into multiple months on a regular basis. Nuclear is no panacea to an energy crisis and a more diverse grid is infinitely more dependable. The idea of a nuclear baseload makes no sense in a country the size of Ireland.

Unfortunately we decided to commit to the future far to late and now we are paying the price of putting off the hard decisions we should have made twenty years ago.

Lots of rhetoric there, no supportable facts. Every single house in Ireland could be self sufficient in Electricity for 70% of the time if there was just an up front investment in solar of €10K per household. That would go a long way to solving all Irelands issues. When you consider that the average houseprice is €300K thats just 3% of the overall price.

So your a human climate change denier, not a point in talking to you old man.

With that attitude your not looking for solutions and will automatically dismiss any that are proposed. Firmly on the problem side of the equation.

I am stating an evidence based fact, you have a point of view. Spot the difference there.